Many parents in our communities are concerned with their children's learning environment in schools, at homes and in local communities. They are concerned with their children getting too much exposures of violence on TV and spending too much time playing computer games alone. They are concerned that there is lack of community activities that can provide children learning opportunity as well as social interactions in a group setting.

The main purposes of the Scrammble tournament are two-fold:

1. To provide an opportunity for more people in our communities to appreciate and enjoy a fun educational game.

2. To raise the awareness that we need to support our education system to stimulate our children to develop a good learning habit.

The Scrammble tournaments are organized by the local libraries in Westchester and Putnam counties in collaboration with school PTAs/PTOs, Northern Westchester and Putnam Teacher Center and several local prominent corporate citizens. (See attachment I) The Scrammble Game Inventor Dr. Ifay Chang, a New York State resident of 35 years with 4 children in Somers public schools is donating his time and games to the event. Dr. Chang is a retired scientist from IBM TJ Watson Research Center, a retired professor from Polytechnic University and an inventor of various things including the game series he called Headutainment Games. The Scrammble word games are not only fun to play but also a game toolkit designed to induce children and adults to create more educational games. The tournament is a non-profit community event promoting education.

The plan of Scrammble tournament is outlined as follows:

1. Sponsors: In addition to the non-profit public organizations, businesses, companies, community groups and foundations are invited to sponsor this community educational event. (A number of banks and businesses have already expressed interest) Sponsors' donations will be given as prize awards to the winning contestants and to the library and PTA/PTO funds. The distribution of the funds will be published.

2. There will be pre-tournament Scrammble Game sessions (See attachment II) to be held once a week at several locations preparing the contestants for the tournament. (Preliminary list: Citibank at Somers, Mahopac Public Library and Northern Westchester and Putnam Teacher Center) Final location list, schedule and game rules are published on the Scrammble web site, www.scrammble.com. These game sessions are free of charge providing opportunities to learn and enjoy the Scrammble games.

3. The first tournament event will be held during the teacher's week in May (for location and schedule see attachment III), and will be repeated during Summer and Winter School breaks as more people participate.

4. Three categories of word game contest will be conducted during the tournament, individual (A) (with age divisions), student teams (B) (elementary, middle and high school) and family team (C) (parent(s) or grand parent(s) and child(ren)) Trophies and prizes will be given to top winners. In addition, cash awards will be presented to Champions.

The pre-tournament games (free workshops) will be held once a week at each location from March through April, one to three hours per session playing various word games based on 'Scrammble'. It is not necessary to join the pre-tournament games before entering the tournament. However, it is highly recommended that all serious tournament contenders should participate at least a few pre-tournament sessions.

The Scrammble tournament will be held at local schools and/or library facilities (attachment II). Pre-registration with refundable registration fee is required to participate in the event. The registration fee will be refunded to participants after the tournament. For no shows the fee will be donated to the non-profit organizations. The event will be recorded and broadcast on public channels supported by CableVision and other cable companies. The video tapes will be made available to schools and libraries for educational purposes.

When will the event be?

The event will be conducted in the week of May (National Teacher's Day/Week, April 29 - May 7, 2006). Preliminary contests will be held first during the week with the Championship of each category conducted on the weekend (Friday to Sunday). The hours for playing will be after school hours and early evening.

All New York State students and residents are qualified to enter the event. (neighboring out-of-state students and residents may be admitted with a sponsor) The procedure is as follows:

Attachment I Sponsors

More Sponsor and Donors Will Be Added 

The Scrammble tournament is for fun. Ethics will be strictly enforced in the game contests. Judges and organizers have the absolute right to eliminate any contestant from the tournament if any inappropriate behavior is discovered. School teachers and parents are encouraged to volunteer to serve as judges.

The prize and awards are donated by sponsors. If sufficient donations were received, there would be cash awards in addition to prizes, trophies and certificates. Cash prize will be announced in the week prior to the tournament or earlier. In addition to cash contribution, other suggested prizes are computers (Apple, Dell, IBM, and Lenovo), subscription to magazines and books (for example, Readers Digest, Borders, Barnes and Noble), educational tools and stationary (Staples, Office Max), educational games and toys (Toys R Us, Family Discount Center, Education Game Warehouse). Gift cards and coupons for products appropriate for children, family activities, entertainment, restaurants, recreation and vacation packages are all welcome.

All sponsors of contestants will be listed in a sponsors directory, a $50 sponsor donation entitles sponsoring up to four tournament contestants. Additional contribution and sponsorship are categorized as follows: 

Make Contributions address to 'Community Education Scrammble Tournament Sponsored by MPL et. al.' (Non-Profit 503 (C) Tax Exempt ID 14-6039220) 668 Route 6, Mahopac Public Library, NY 10541

• Stimulate children learning habits with fun family/group game

• Promote learning through community sponsored interactive family and team games

• Encourage children and family to create educational games, visit public libraries and participate in community educational events

• Develop a meaningful long-term self-sustainable community educational event

• Raise funds for supporting libraries and PTA/PTO organizations

• A fun word game with strategy and math elements to scramble words into new and longer words to achieve high score. Players are 100% engaged with no dull moment.

• More than twenty word games can be played with the same Scrammble set. These games may be played at the preliminary games leading to the principal Scrammble Game Contest.

Prizes and Donations Received So Far (List to be updated biweekly)

• Cash Donors:

• Citiobank

• Sound Federal Savings 

• Anonymous Individuals

• Award Donations:

• 115 Books from Reader's Digest (Classics, History and Children Books)

• Scrammble Games

• Educational Games and Toys

• Other Donations:

  • Beverages from Pepsi

Rules of Scrammble Tournament (Official Rules and Approved Modifications)

1. All contestants must register with a sponsor. (Businesses and any individual of 21 year or older may be a sponsor)

2. Judges' rulings always prevail provided not in conflict with the tournament official rules and tournament dictionary.

3. A division and/or category may be changed to informal games if not sufficient contestants were enrolled. (cash prize may be cancelled but awards and recognition may be granted if appropriate)

4. Punctual arrival and report to the contest on time is a pre-requisite for participation. Late arrival forfeits the right to play.

5. No contact and no conversation with any non-contestant during the contest are allowed. Violation may be grounds for forfeiting the competition.

6. Cell phone usage is not permitted by any contestant during any contest.

7. For team competition (Family or student team), one person must be designated as the team captain. Team captain must report to the contest official prior to the contest. Substitution of team members are not allowed unless due to sickness, prior approval is required. 

8. The official tournament rules are published on the Tournament Web site at http://www.scrammble.us